


New Beginnings

by saltyb0ba



Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Descriptions of Pain, Don't say I didn't warn you, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Lots of Crying, Sibling Bonding, april is the mom figure, leo and donnie bond, more tags to come, raph and mikey bond, rottmnt villain au, taking advantage of donnie's shell yet again, this is gonna be a long fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:40:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27500941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saltyb0ba/pseuds/saltyb0ba
Summary: (note: title is subject to change)A Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles villain AU!Once, there were four brothers and their dad. They lived like any normal family would, playing together, eating together, and spending time on their own special interests. One day, while the four were out fighting Baron Draxum, Leo and Donnie got knocked out. They were captured as Raph and Mikey were forced to leave their brothers behind for their own safety. A few months passed, and Leo and Donnie are now villains. It's up to Raph, Mikey, April and Mayhem to find out why and get them back.
Relationships: Donatello & Leonardo & Michelangelo & April O'Neil & Raphael & Splinter | Lou Jitsu
Comments: 7
Kudos: 45





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> hey! first, thank you so much for clicking on this fic! this is gonna be a labor of love, so you won't be dissapointed <3  
> im planning to have a more stable upload schedule than my other rise fic, since this is something i want to see done all the way through. but don't worry if you're interested in the other one!! i'll be getting back to it sometime soon!
> 
> for now it's just the prologue, you'll be getting the actual first chapter sometime next week!

“Bet you can’t catch me!” Mikey exclaimed as Leo chased him around the lair. They were playing tag for what felt like the first time in ages, and the winner would get something that belongs to the loser. Leo was determined to win, sprinting around the lair, barely catching up to Mikey. Raph and Donnie were competing to see who could flip a water bottle and land it on it’s cap. Donnie was calculating the exact way to throw it while Raph was just tossing it when he felt good about it. When it was Donnie’s turn, he flipped it and it landed on it’s side. 

“Darn! Raph, your turn.” Donnie was angry his calculations weren’t right, so he went right back to checking them. Raph flipped the bottle and it landed on it’s cap, to Raph’s delight. 

“YOOOOOO!” He exclaimed, shaking from excitement. He really thought Donnie would be able to flip it, math was on his side and he was an expert in physics. Donnie smirked, and patted Raph on the back. 

“WATCH OUT!!” Mikey yelled as he ran by. Leo closely followed, accidentally hitting the water bottle with his foot, causing him to trip. 

“Mmm, that hurt.” Leo said through gritted teeth as he stood up, rubbing his side. Mikey ran over, apologizing and giving Leo hugs. "Mikey, it's not a big deal, I'm ok." He replied, giving a smile and a thumbs up.

"So how are you guys doing?" Mikey asked his older brothers. 

"We  _ were _ having a bottle flipping competition before you two ran in here!" The bottle was smashed from the impact of Leo's foot hitting it.

"Anyways, I won so I get dibs on the next dessert." Raph boasted, proud of himself.

"No fair, Mikey and I didn't even compete!" Leo complained.

"You heard him, Leo. Besides, it's just  _ one _ dessert. We can live without it." Donnie said, shrugging.

Suddenly Donnie's touchpad began beeping. He looked into it and found that April was trying to call them. But from where? He traced the call back to somewhere in the Hidden City, trying to get it's exact coordinates.

"Hey guys, come look at this," Donnie said, still looking at his arm. "Aprils in trouble and she's somewhere in the Hidden City. My tech is pointing to somewhere in Draxum's lab. Raph, answer the phone." Donnie's taps were quick and frantic, the aftereffect of trying to look calm and collected. He never really could manage the two well.

"April, you alright?" Raph asked, a shake to his voice. He held the phone with both hands, trying to steady himself.

"No, I'm not alright! You guys have to come and get me, I'm in Baron Draxu-" The call was cut off, subsequently Donnie lost the signal.

"Well, we know where we have to go!" Leo said, throwing the boys their weapons and opening a portal.

"Let's go save April."


	2. Dark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi!! welcome to the first official chapter!!  
> please enjoy!! <3

Traversing the Hidden City and coming upon Draxum's lair, the boys stayed silent. The element of surprise was to their advantage, Draxum was monologuing to April in one of his disgusting cages that used to house experiments and didn’t pay attention to his surroundings. They crouched and started to whisper.

“So what’s the plan?” Mikey whispered to Raph. He was fidgeting with his kusari fundo, nervous about the situation. Raph put his hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort the box turtle. He knew situations like this were nerve wracking for Mikey.

“When Draxum leaves the room, Leo and I will go after him, buying you two time to help April escape. Donnie will use his tech knowledge to see if there’s any technical way we can get April out without causing alarm. If not, Mikey, you’ll use your kusari fundo to get April out. Got it?” Everyone nodded and Leo opened a portal, the blue lightning crackling and the light swirling as it waited.   
  
“See you guys in a bit!” Leo called after Raph jumped in, giving a wink. He left, and the portal closed, leaving Donnie and Mikey to find a way to get April out.

Draxum began to walk away, finished with talking. Donnie and Mikey were careful to stay out of sight as he walked, moving in sync with his steps to keep out of sight. In the middle of finding a safe path down, Donnie felt a tap on his shoulder.

“...Hey Donnie? Do you think they’re gonna be ok?” Mikey was scared of Baron Draxum, and reasonably so. He was the youngest of the 4 and the most impressionable. Donnie had felt like this once, about an enemy that had put his brothers in danger and put all the pressure on him to find them a way out while also hoping they’d keep themselves safe. 

“Yeah, Mikey. Come here, you seem a bit shaken up.” Donnie motioned for him to crawl over, and they hugged. Mikey’s muscles untensed and he shook himself, trying to get rid of the anxiety that was trying to take him over. 

“Okay, I’m ready. Let’s go save April.” Mikey hopped on Donnie’s back as his propellers activated, and glided down to where April was, giving a wave as they landed.

“Took you guys long enough,” She said with a playful glare. Donnie began tapping his touchpad, searching for any possible tech that might be holding the bars down. Mikey was testing what the material was, and if he could slice it open with his weapon. “Where’s the other two boys, anyway?”

“They’re distracting Draxum so we can set you free, April,” Donnie replied. “Looks like there’s no tech in this area connected to these disgusting bars. He must have used mystic magic. Seems that’s all they rely on down here. Disgusting. Mikey, you got any ideas?” He was already hitting the barks with the spiky end of his kusari fundo, and was actually getting through, to Donnie’s surprise. April was able to push the bars out of the way once they were cut enough and got up to stretch.    
  
“Ahh, that feels go-” A loud explosion came from one of the walls, the force knocking the 3 back. Donnie jumped in front of the other two, his bo staff at the ready. 

“You hit like a baby, Draxum!” Leo shouted as he sliced open another portal over Baron Draxum’s head, throwing rocks through it so that he could get a tiny bit of leeway for Raph. Raph hauled a piece of debris at Draxum’s face, but he shoved it out of the way with ease, using his vines to avoid anything thrown at him. His gaze fell on Donnie, who had gotten the other two to safety and was running towards him, trying to help his brothers.

“Ah, just who I wanted to see.” With a smirk, Baron Draxum’s vines burst out of the ground and pinned Donnie up against the wall, with a force so hard it broke his battle shell. Donnie let out a yelp filled with pain as pieces of his battle shell cut into his own. The rest of the pieces fell to the ground with a sickening clatter. Leo instantly teleported onto the vines to try to rescue Donnie and started to cut them, but to no avail. He tried running to the source, hoping cutting that off would release the pressure the vine was exerting on Donnie. He readied his odachi at an incoming vine, but one came from under him and grabbed him by the arm, twisting it. The burning sensation forming on the lower half of his arm forced his hand to let go. The odachi let out a deafening clang, hitting the ground. Leo started to cry from the pain, something he would normally hide from his brothers. He needed to be strong when no one else could be, and he failed.

Raph was fuming. Donnie had been seriously injured, and Leo lost his sword, along with control of his feelings. He wanted to battle Draxum, but he realized this wasn’t a battle they could win through fighting. He would only get injured himself, and that wouldn’t help anyone. So he tried a different approach, as uncomfortable and new as it felt to him.

“Baron Draxum.” Raph’s voice was assertive, commanding attention. Draxum gave it to him.

“Yes?” He had no idea what the turtle had in mind, why he would choose to talk instead of fight. But he welcomed it, this was a new development and he wanted to see where it would go. 

“What do you want from us? Why did you kidnap April?” Raph figured asking questions would do  _ something _ .

“I merely just wanted a new subject. Ever since  _ that one _ escaped, I need a new plan. I knew this would be a good place to start, since you four  _ were _ originally mine. But it seems you aren’t ok with that, of course you wouldn’t be,” He sighed with a headshake.

Raph needed to hurry. He could hear Donnie’s pained breath and crying from the icy-hot pain and damage the remnants of the battle shell caused to his own, and Leo’s hyperventilating from seeing his brother in pain. Leo disregarded his own feelings in favor of his brother’s. Raph knew that Leo would never let that happen to Donnie, no matter all the squabbles they had. He could feel Mikey and April’s stares, the need to know what happens next and faint crying from the stress of the whole situation.

“I would’ve given you two choices; to do this the easy way or the hard way. But since you wrecked half my lab, I guess I’ll have to take the painful route.” He raised his hand, and more vines came out of the ground, grabbing Raph around the neck. He struggled to pull them off, but they only wrapped around his hands, rendering them useless. April grabbed Mikey’s hand and they ran away; if all of them were stuck there it wouldn’t end well. She had to be the big sister, even if it meant leaving the boys on their own.

“Now, my sweet turtles, sleep.” Draxum infused his vines with pheromones that made everyone drowsy, and everything went black.

\----

"C'mon, Mikey! We gotta get out of the Hidden City!" April panted. She was being followed by Mikey, who was a mess of anxiety and kept stumbling as he followed her over the messy paths.

"But what about the others? They  _ need _ our help!" He stopped running, April shortly after. He was on the verge of tears, he didn't want to leave his brothers when he knew they were in serious trouble. April walked up to him. 

"Mikey, I want to go back and help too, trust me. But we need to help in a different way. Getting in the middle of all that would just put us in a worse situation than we already were in. This is our best option." She looked into his eyes and hoped he would understand. He held her hand and they started to run again, albeit a bit slower.

Soon, they reached a wall. Mikey pulled the charm out and hesitantly drew a symbol on the wall, creating a portal to New York's surface. 

"Bye, guys. We'll be back soon, I promise." Mikey whispered before the portal closed behind him.

\----

_ Unghh…..Where am I? _

Raph woke up in a small enclosure. His senses were jacked from whatever Draxum had done, he was dizzy and he couldn't think straight. Sitting up, he tried to assess where he was. Dark, moist stony walls surrounded him, with occasional bugs wandering around. His tonfas were gone, too.

"I...what?" Raph rubbed his head and it came to him- he was somewhere in Baron Draxum's lair. 

_ Donnie and Leo aren't here- where’s Mikey? _

He started to freak out, but Mind Raph visited him, trying his best to reassure the real Raph.

“Hey, Raph, it’s gonna be ok. Find a way out of here, then you can find the others.” Mind Raph consoled.

Raph got up and started to hit the door, trying to bust it open, but that only got the attention of Baron Draxum. He calmly walked forward with a sick smile creeping across his face.

“Hello there.” His sneer unsettled Raph. “I have a deal for you. You can go free, if I get to keep your brothers.” 

“I wo-” Raph started.

“BUT! You can’t come back for them. They are  _ mine, _ never to come back to you again, understand?” Draxum knew this would strike a chord in Raph, he was shown to be very affectionate towards his brothers, almost like a fatherly figure. He knew the deal was out of the blue, but he didn’t really know of another way to bring it up.   
  


“I- what?” Raph backed up with a confused expression. Why would he say something like this? He needed his brothers to stay  _ together, _ that way he  **knew** they would all be safe. He knew just what to say to Draxum.

“No. I won’t take you up on your offer. Those are my brothers, I’m never leaving them behind.” He clung into the door, determined that Draxum would get the message. 

“Ah, well, pity. I was hoping you would be easy to get rid of. Guess we’ll just have to see what happens. Have fun in the cell.” Draxum teased as he walked away. He knew just what to do to get rid of Raph since he wasn't going willingly. He'd just have to make him. After all, a strong turtle with a soft heart isn't a good mix for what he had in mind. The other two were much better, a slim, fast turtle and a tech savvy, thinker turtle. They were the best of the four, able to hide their weak spots where it would be difficult to reach, almost emotionally impenetrable. Sure, one of them had a pretty big weakness, but the lesson he was taught tonight was sure to toughen him up enough to compensate for his shell.

"Man, Draxum isn't playing games," Raph said to himself. He had no idea what Draxum was going to do to him, and if he could ever reach his brothers. He was imprisoned in what looked like an abandoned, left alone part of Draxum's lab, strong enough to hold someone inside but weak enough that it was easily built over. It was a drastic difference from where their fight occurred, where many things were polished and kept in check. He hoped April and Mikey were doing well, he knew neither of them fared well in situations like this.

\----

Soft sobbing could be heard coming from the turtles' lair. What normally was playful cheering was now somber silence. April was comforting a panicked Mikey, who gently rocked himself back and forth on the living room floor.

"Hey, it's ok, Mikey. They'll come back. You have me. Let's try to do something to cheer you up, ok?" April was hopeful this would work, she couldn’t keep up a conversation with someone who couldn’t focus on it. "How about you paint something on one of those walls?" She pointed to a bare wall surrounded by little marks of graffiti. Mikey followed her arm, and his sobs turned to sniffles. Art was always something that calmed him down, no matter what the situation was. He looked at April and nodded, getting up and giving her a hug before heading to his room to get spray cans.

"I'll be in the kitchen if you need me, ok?" She called after Mikey, walking towards a hallway. She needed to make a phone call before she did anything else. Turning on her phone and scrolling down her contacts list, she came across Splinter's icon and pressed it. He only had a phone because Donnie insisted the family could stay connected that way. She assumed Leo and Donnie wouldn't have their phones on them while they fought Draxum, so calling them would be pointless.

"Hey, what do you want?" The familiar grumpy voice grounded April a bit.

"This is April, where are you?" She hadn't seen him since they got back.

"I'm at- uhh, sorry, gotta go!" An abrupt tone ended the call.  _ He's too busy to even tell me where he is, wow. _ She rolled her eyes and put her phone back in her pocket. So she didn't know  _ where _ he was  _ or  _ what he was doing. Great. 

April moved on and preheated their oven, hoping to surprise Mikey with a pizza. Hopefully  _ that _ would lighten the mood. While she waited, she heard the sound of spray cans and radio music, something Mikey used to make himself focus. Popping her head outside the kitchen and walking down the hallway, she saw Mikey indulged in his work. He seemed to be making some sort of word. Suddenly, she heard a beep from the kitchen and ran back, putting the pizza in and setting a timer. Even though she knew and accepted that it wouldn't work, she called Donnie and Leo, met by the "at the tone, say _____" from the attempt at calling Donnie and the literal yelling into a phone from Leo. She giggled and tried Raph. She was brought back to reality when he didn’t answer, her smile turning emotionless. She realized she had no idea what happened to him, and started to stress. But she calmed herself down with breathing, she knew he was gonna take care of himself and find a way out. The timer rang, and she pulled the pizza out, cutting it up so she could share with Mikey.

“Yo Mikey! I got pizza!” She called out, walking into the open space. Mikey rolled down the skating ramp in his shell, popping out and grabbing a slice as he went by.

“Thanks, I feel a little bit better now. Still a  _ little _ jittery, but I’m calm.” Mikey told her. He didn’t mention this was one of his favorite types of pizza, he’d rather keep that little slice of happiness for himself.

\---

Raph heard a slight vibration in front of his cell, and got up to look out the small window to see what it was.

“My phone?” He was both confused and intrigued. He would’ve answered it if it wasn’t for the hardened steel door covered with overgrowth. It was impossible to break through. He could only watch in agony as it vibrated for the last time, then turned off. His only way of communication outside, gone. He would just have to come up with something else, then. But first, he needed sleep. Any plan he had wouldn’t go well if he didn’t have enough energy to carry it out. He gathered what he could to make himself comfortable on that cold, stony floor, and fell asleep.

“Well,  _ this _ is convenient,” Baron Draxum remarked as he visited Raph. He didn’t expect the turtle to be asleep. Guess he didn’t have to use a tranquilizer then. Suddenly, he felt a vibration coming from his left. It was a phone. With a snap, a vine went straight through it, shattering it to pieces. Turning his attention back to the cell, he opened the door and lifted Raph up with his vines, bringing him far away from his lab. Now left somewhere in the Hidden City, Draxum finally was alone with his two experiments. 

“Time to get to work.” He sneered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> totally me not separating them on purpose so i can get some underrated april and mikey fluff while layering angst on :)c
> 
> i wonder how donnie and leo are doing?
> 
> please leave a comment or kudos if you enjoyed!! <3


	3. INTERMISSION

hey!! sorry i missed the last two weeks!  
i sorta got a new hyperfixation and lost motivation for this fic ^^'  
(i told myself this would happen aaaa)

anyways there's gonna be a bit of a hiatus until im ready to post again !! hopefully around the time the movie comes out or earlier

really sorry guys, i was hoping to get farther than the 1st chapter before doing something like this ;;

(also i think my notes are glitched??? )

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! i hope this intrigued you somewhat :3c  
> please leave a comment and a kudos if you liked it, it's very much appreciated!


End file.
